Kirkton of Fetteresso Cemetery

Fetteresso, Kincardineshire

Address: Kirkton of Fetteresso Cemetery, Fettersso, Stonehaven, AB39 3UP

Latitude: 56.961918

Longitude: -2.243199

Find A Grave Link: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2484857/fetteresso-st.-ciaran-kirkyard

Website: -

Description: St CiaranÔÇÖs Fetteresso is named after St Ciaran (515-548 AD) an Irish monk and like St Columba a pupil of St Finnian. St. Ciaran was the founding Abbott of the ancient monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise in the County of Offaly Ireland. He and his followers were missionaries to the Picts; however, it is very unlikely that St Ciaran himself ever came as far as the Mearns. The Church was officially dedicated on May 26th 1246 by Bishop David de Bernham. The surviving ruin situated on a knoll above the Carron Water is the 1720 rebuild of the earlier church. A medieval door way still exists and reused medieval stone work is still visible in the walls. Within the Church is the burial aisle of the Duff family, the last main landowners of Fetteresso Estate. A number of notable graves also lie within the Church including a recumbent stone lying below where the pulpit would have been, this marks the resting place of the last minister of the old Kirk Rev George Thomson. All grave stones are important but thereÔÇÖs one that is of particular interest to genealogists and family historians, that of Alexander Wood (number 451 in this booklet). You have this gent to thank for the introduction of statutory records in Scotland in 1855. His failure to write a will ended up in one of the most extensive court cases in Scotland, Willox v Farrell. The Kirk Session Records could provide no evidence as to who AlexanderÔÇÖs Grandfather was and therefore who should be the beneficiary of his ┬ú5.2 million pound fortune. This court case was used as one of the main legal arguments for the necessity of keeping statutory registration records in Scotland. St CiaranÔÇÖs is one of the most extensive and the most important old Kirkyards in Kincardineshire. The Church with its extensive grave yard has some 860 grave stones and is situated in the picturesque Conservation Village of Kirktown of Fetteresso on the outskirts of Stonehaven. The village and the Kirk are well worth a visit, whether you are tracing your family history or visiting the important scheduled ancient monument of St CiaranÔÇÖs Fetteresso.